Apple probably feels that they can do better. The most succesful ARM processors come from Qualcomm and the CPUs are Qualcomm's own and not ARMs.
I would also guess that the royalty associated with ARM architecture license is lower than that of an ARM CPU design.

Apple probably feels that they can do better. The most succesful ARM processors come from Qualcomm and the CPUs are Qualcomm's own and not ARMs.
I would also guess that the royalty associated with ARM architecture license is lower than that of an ARM CPU design.

Apple is battling Samsung and others in this market and margins are crucial. Apple cannot affort to write a royalty check to Intel for each iPhone sold especially when Samsung is using it's own processor. http://www.katalogstron-seo.pl/

Apple is battling Samsung and others in this market and margins are crucial. Apple cannot affort to write a royalty check to Intel for each iPhone sold especially when Samsung is using it's own processor. http://www.katalogstron-seo.pl/

great comments, especially since keeping all those LTE bands running increases the RF power consumption by up to 20 % and forces you to charge your 4G phone before you can get to the Happy Hour after a hard day's work.
20 nm FinFET would certainly make a diff. over TSMC's 28 nm LP and at this point Intel would probably be happy to just become THE Foundry for A7,8,.. designed by Apple rather than keep insisting on Fab-ing only their own x86 designs. Perhaps they would be happy making their own Merrifield ( x 86, 20 nm FinFET ) for high volume low priced / mid range Smartphone brands like Lenovo for emerging markets and gain new markets on the basis of price and power efficiency thanks to smaller and less leaky transistors ( the FinFETs ).

great comments, especially since keeping all those LTE bands running increases the RF power consumption by up to 20 % and forces you to charge your 4G phone before you can get to the Happy Hour after a hard day's work.
20 nm FinFET would certainly make a diff. over TSMC's 28 nm LP and at this point Intel would probably be happy to just become THE Foundry for A7,8,.. designed by Apple rather than keep insisting on Fab-ing only their own x86 designs. Perhaps they would be happy making their own Merrifield ( x 86, 20 nm FinFET ) for high volume low priced / mid range Smartphone brands like Lenovo for emerging markets and gain new markets on the basis of price and power efficiency thanks to smaller and less leaky transistors ( the FinFETs ).

For me the only useful takeaway from this rather long article is that so far as top line Phones & Tablets are concerned, GPUs have become more important than CPUs. This sort of falls in line with Samsung's strategy as well. This means that in the foreseeable future the importance of CPUs from ARM will diminish and top OEMs like Apple and Samsung will spend more effort in tweaking their store bought GPU IPs, adding better algorithms, perhaps even hardwiring them in micro-code. That might be the game Apple would have better chance to stay ahead of Samsung - till of course the next Killer App comes along that does not need higher res. / faster Video !

For me the only useful takeaway from this rather long article is that so far as top line Phones & Tablets are concerned, GPUs have become more important than CPUs. This sort of falls in line with Samsung's strategy as well. This means that in the foreseeable future the importance of CPUs from ARM will diminish and top OEMs like Apple and Samsung will spend more effort in tweaking their store bought GPU IPs, adding better algorithms, perhaps even hardwiring them in micro-code. That might be the game Apple would have better chance to stay ahead of Samsung - till of course the next Killer App comes along that does not need higher res. / faster Video !

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.